The Ketchum keystone. [volume] (Ketchum, Idaho) 1885-1899, 1887-07-09
CORONACH AND JUBILEE

Queen Victoris's reign has been be- c
the sound Of solemn religious mourn e
in the churches Of Ireland in memory
the thousands of Irish Of both sexes
women and children, youth, stout mid
years and bale old age-that died Pa.
famiue ia ,Ie47 and 1880 as misera. 2
and as needlessly as the $4,000 I'M
prisoners perished in fifteen months
Andersonville. AndcrsOnville was
crime against humanity for which some
body was responsible, for the Confeoer
ate surgeons in charge in vain filed the
official protest against the fatal sani,aE-
surroundings. diet and camp disciplina
and the famine il Ireland that mere tin
once during fifty years has been perm i
ed to slay its thousands is stain on &
wisdom and humanity of Victoria's SOY
ernment.
ireland is a very small country; il i
traversed by railroads and canals; it La,
a number of fine harbors. There was
excuse for the frightful Irish famine O.
lS47. A million and half of the ir
habitants of Ireland died of actual stai
vation in 1S47. Landlords ruthlessly eN
acted rents in spite of the declining har
vests and the failure Of the potato c:or
There was plenty Of food in Ireland ir
the dreadful famine year Of 1885,.
Exports went out of every harbor, and N
that dreadful year enough food for NOR
than twice the entire population was ex
ported.
When A. T. Stewards ship arrived from
America at Queenstown with food she
passed three English ships conveying
food out. Famine in Ireland in lS41 ant
1880 meant not an absolute dearth or food
but it meant in season of scarcity, when
the potato crop had failed, the landlord
had taken everything for rent, so tina
the peasant starved because he had T.
money to buy food of the landlord thai
coined his blood into drschmas and taken
his last shilling when the last potato had
rotted in the ground. Such famine
was more than the industrial error of q
peasantry who had no varied industries
il was q crime on the part Of the lane
lords like Lansdowne's grandfather, wEo
was then conspicuous for cruelty.
Five hundred thousand persons die
in British India once of famine, but there
was some excuse for that, as there were
but limited means of transportation in
that day for enormous distances; but ia
mine in Ireland in 1S47 and 1880 WAS t
black spot on the governments scutcheon
for il meant not dcarth of food, but the
last penny Of the peasant he needed IL
order to buy food snatched from his hand
by the heartess crowd of rackrenline
landlords. Political economists defin'
rent as the surplus due the landlord aite'
the tiller has had out of his labor a liz
ing for himself and family. And yet il
1870, when it was clear that il the lane
lords did not make reduction 10 rents
in consequence of the bad harvest an
the failure of the potato crop, th'
famine of lS47 would he repeated u
1880, the government declined to brin;
in a bill for reduction Of rents. Sixt
thousand persons were in the poor house
against $4,000 in 1S47, when Ireland ha'
larger population than 1880.
Nothing saved Ireland from the awfu
scenes Of lS47, save the vast charity o
the world. The United States, India
Canada, Australia, South Africa an'
South America sent $4,OOO,OOO, whicl
saved 100000 Irish from starvation. Th'
details of this dreadful famine Of lS4
can be briefly told. The potato rot brok
out in Ireland in the autumn OF lS45
The peasantry of the north lived on oa
meal, the peasantry of the south chief
on the potato, seldom taking meat. TIL
starved peasants swarmed along the road
sides and died in the streets. The poe
wretches committed minor crime to 81
cure prison shelter and food. When tbi
famine was over it was found that Irelan
had lost two millions of her people b
starvation and emigration. That habit
emmigratiou has never stopped and II
result is the new Ireland of America an
Canada, whose money, not the wisdom
of the government, saved Ireland in 1873
, from the repetition of the awful scenes Q
Skibbereen, Skull and WestpOrt in 1874
. Well may the prelates of the Iris
church raise the corOnsch to-day, mi
, the voices of jubilee, over the thousand
, of the martyrs to thst h0rrid consequent
E Of misgovernmcut that history calls ii
, Irish famine. 1t is just and awful il
b dictment of the folly and inhumsnity {
r Eogand's system of Irish governmen
, No patton. with brains, money and tran
D portatlon at its command, can escape Il
J. charge of governmental incapacity whe
famine is permitted to slay thousands
q land where food is plenty for expol
= while the famishing man cannot br
food in the midst of plenty, because Il
. landlord has under the law wrested fro
q him h;a laaf cant